ART REFERENCE
       [General Reading/ReferenceAND Real Rarities]

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Blake's Missing Designs, Found — Beautifully Reproduced
One of theDe Luxe Copies

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•  Fine, limited-edition facsimile of Blake's long-lost suite of watercolor illustrations for The Grave, rediscovered in 2001 and here presented with essays and commentary by Martin Butlin and Morton D. Paley. John Commander supervised the design and production of this elegant set on behalf of the William Blake Trust; the binding was done by Smith Settle, who housed the facsimile illustrations in a sturdier, calf reproduction of the red morocco portfolio in which the real suite was found.

Present in the folio volume are the text of the poem, a detailed account of the publication history and the publisher's changes in plan, color illustrations of Blake's allegorical designs, and the engravings eventually produced by Schiavonetti, with analysis of the similarities and differences. The 19 accompanying reproductions of Blake's watercolors are mounted in the style of the originals and housed in the portfolio described above.

This is copy XIII of 36 numbered De Luxe special copies of a total edition of 186 copies: the De Luxe copies are bound in quarter calf and include the portfolio replica.

•  Publisher's quarter red calf and black moiré silk, front cover with gilt-stamped red leather label, spine with gilt-stamped title, top edges gilt; portfolio in red calf with gilt-stamped title. Both items in publisher's double slipcase covered in black moiré silk; the whole in beautiful condition. An attractive and critically significant production.  (29931)

Blumenthal onthe Arts of the Book

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•  “An exhibition of books and ephemera,” with commentary by Blumenthal (founder of the press) and a final section dedicated to images of title-pages, illustrations, text, etc. 1500 paper-bound (and 400 cloth-bound) copies were produced of this key reference work on the Spiral Press.

•  Publisher's printed paper wrappers, showing minor traces of wear. Pages generally clean; one upper outer corner with minor spot of staining, a few samples of page layouts lightly annotated in pencil.  (29712)

Limited Edition Facsimile

•  Number 86 of a limited edition of 300 copies of this facsimile of the Victoria and Albert Museum copy of this famous writing book.

•  Publisher's light boards with printed dust wrapper, in Mylar protective jacket. Nearly new.  (23241)

Litterati of Antwerp Salute One of Their Own — Portrait after Peter Paul Rubens
Woodcut *&* Engraved Versions of the Plantin Device

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•  First edition. A multi-part memorial volume from the Plantin–Moretus press in honor of Philippe Rubens (1574–1611), brother of the famed artist, whose Greek and Latin rendition of the Homilies by Asterius, Bishop of Amasia (ca. 375–405), occupies the first section of the text, here in Greek and Latin printed in double columns. Little is known about Asterius, Bishop of Amasea, and there has been much scholarly debate regarding exactly which homilies should be attributed to his authorship and which to other early Christians, including Asterius the Sophist; the Catholic Encyclopedia online says his works provide “valuable material to the Christian archaeologist.”

The second section here includes verses Rubens composed in the later years prior to his death in 1611 and dedicated to illustrious members of his circle including the humanist Justus Lipsius, Janus Woverius, and Peter Paul Rubens and Isabelle Brant, who married in 1609. Brant’s father, Jan, composed the introductory letter to the reader.

The volume was published at the request of Cardinal Ascanius Columnas in an edition ofonly 750 copies, and was printed at Antwerp at the press of Moretus’ widow and sons with the famous Plantin device appearing in two versions (engraved, to the title, and woodcut, to the final recto).

A full-page engraved funeral portrait of Rubens engraved by Cornelius Galleafter Peter Paul Rubens signals the beginning of the third section, in which Jan Brant records the life of his son-in-law’s brother and transcribes his epitaph. Even Balthasar Moretus contributes an epigram in honor of the deceased.

In the fourth section, Rubens’ own orations and selected letters appear, i.a. his funeral oration to Philip II of Spain. Josse DeRycke contributed the final funerary tribute.

Done up in fully elegant Plantin–Moretus style, the volume has in addition to its careful typography and full-page plate and devices been lavished throughout with two-line block initials and four-line historiated woodcut initials; also, it offers several intricate woodcut tailpieces.

Searches of NUC Pre-1956 and WorldCat locate only eight copies in U.S. institutions, one of which has been deaccessioned; most arenot in obvious places.

•  Graesse, I, 241; Corpus Rubenianum, XXI (1977), 152.   Period-style full brown calf, covers framed in blind double fillets, spine with gilt-stamped red leather title-label, raised bands with blind tooling extending onto covers. With a few odd spots to the text only, this is aremarkably fine, crisp copy. All edges green.  (28878)

“My Style ofDrawing Birds”

•  Consists of two essays: “My style of drawing birds,” published in M. Audubon's Audubon and his journals, 1897; and “Method of drawing birds,” published in the Edinburgh Journal of Science, v. 8, 1828. The original manuscript is presented in fine facsimile showing several authorial corrections and emendations of the first draft, and with a transcription and an introduction. Limited to 400 copies.

•  Original green cloth stamped in gold, cloth slightly soiled and interior with a bit of cockling (not, really, staining) from moisture intrusion to lower margins. Though the price is much reduced here, recognizing faults, the book is actually less “reduced” than the price is!  (29037)

Limited to303 Copies

•  Privately printed. Descriptions of 34 works, one per page, each with an illustration on opposite page. Catalogue p .rinted by William Rudge.

•  Ex-library with blind pressure- and rubber-stamps, properly deaccessioned.

Berenson, Bernard.  Sunset and twilight. From the diaries of 1947–1958. New York: Harcourt, Brace, & World, [copyright 1963]. 8vo. xxv, [1], 547, [1] pp.
$17.50

•  First edition: Excerpts from the diaries of Berenson's later years.

•  Good; dust jacket with edge chips, creases, and small discolorations, cloth beneath clean with minor edge and corner wear. (3158)

Detailed — DETAILED!

•  First American edition, translated by Christina Hedström and Gerald Taylor, of one of the most comprehensive reference books on the subject. The volume is illustrated with eight color plates and 239 monochromes (the latter mostly in-text, some full-page).

•  Publisher's blue cloth, spine with gilt- and blue-stamped title; without dust jacket, spine slightly sunned, a clean, solid copy.  (24835)

AMERICAN  SAMPLERS

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•  Unabridged republication of the 1921 first edition by the Massachusetts Society of the Colonial Dames of America. The work is illustrated with a frontispiece and 63 double-sided black and white plates, for a total of 127 images.

•  Publisher's printed paper wrappers, slightly age-toned, spine and one corner creased, with a few minimal nicks or bumps to edges. Pages clean.A nice copy.  (29383)

“Large Scale” in Several Respects . . .
62 Engravings & Bedford Bound

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•  First edition, illustrated with a total of 62 engraved plates. Allibone describes Brayley “a laborious and accurate topographer”; he compiled and edited a wide range of works with titles featuring assorted Beauties, Picturesques, Histories, Antiquities, etc. The present work provides a history of Westminster Abbey and some of its associated luminaries, along with extensive descriptions of its architecture, sculptures, and paintings. The illustrator who portrayed many of the above, John Preston Neale, was an architectural draftsman and landscape painter “best remembered for his views of the nation's country houses, churches, and public buildings,” according to the Oxford DNB.

Binding:  By Francis Bedford, signed, in dark brown morocco done between 1851 and 1880, covers framed and panelled in ornate gilt rolls with gilt-stamped corner fleurons and midpoint decoration. Spines gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels. Board edges gilt-tooled with triple fillets, turn-ins with gilt-tooled rolls and corner fleurons. All edges gilt. Stamped “F. Bedford” on lower front turn-in.

Provenance:  Each front pastedown with armorial bookplate of William Arthur, sixth Duke of Portland.

•  NSTC 2B46491; Allibone 240; Brunet, II, 1215.   Binding as above, minor shelf wear to lower edges and corners, vol. I with front board expertly reattached and with small dent to outer edge of front cover. Joints delicate, due to size and weight of volumes, but holding. A few pages and plates with faint foxing, otherwise clean.  (24100)

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(Cassatt, Mary).  Hale, Nancy. Mary Cassatt. Garden City: Doubleday & Co., 1975.
$15.00

Clark, Kenneth. Another part of the wood: A self-portrait. New York: Harper & Row, 1974. Dust jacket slightly worn, yellowed.
$17.50

Clark, Kenneth. The other half: A self-portrait. London: John Murray, 1977. Dust jacket in good condition, very slightly crumpled at top of spine.
$17.50

(Clark, Kenneth). Secrest, Meryle. Kenneth Clark: A biography. New York: Fromm International, 1986. Paperback, in fine condition, inscribed by author. With photographs.
$7.50

Capturing an AgeOne Biography at a Time

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•  First edition: Concise yet entertainingly anecdote-laden biographies recounting the accomplishments and characters (foibles and all) of the most prominent figures of the age: nobles, churchmen, politicians, dissenters, military and naval officers, jurists, physicians, voyagers and travelers, scientists, writers, economists, architects,artists and musicians, etc. All the expectable princesses, duchesses, and countesses are present, along with a handful of women represented in other categories — the preponderance falling under the “Vocal Performers” and “Actors” headings.

The first volume is illustrated with12 plates each offering four rows of small portraits, some intriguingly expressive; each volume opens with an engraved frontispiece portrait of a royal George.

•  NSTC 2C23867.   Recent textured maroon cloth, spines with gilt-stamped black leather title and volume labels; title-pages institutionally pressure- (not rubber-) stamped. Scattered light spots of staining, pages generally clean; first few leaves of voI. \ II with outer margins chipped. A hefty, substantive evocation of Georgian life and times.  (30012)

REACTIONARY!

•  With 34 black and white plates. A scathing critique of modernist impulses in contemporary art, namely its emphasis on composition for its own sake, a style that dispenses with or distorts natural forms. The author advocates instead a return to art that is derived from the experiences of the people and has meaning for them.

•  Publisher's cloth, stamped in gilt and red on the spine and on the front. Light wear to edges, corners, and over joints; spine darkened. A very good copy.

Hague & Gill Bibliography — “Observing Eric Gill's Centenary”

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•  First edition: Compiled and with an introduction by James Davis. The text is illustrated with four versions of the printer's devices designed by Gill for Hague & Gill, plus “Pigotts Road.”

•  Publisher's plain paper wrappers. Clean and fresh.  (29721)

An Artist's View of theEarly Development of American Art

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•  First edition. Dunlap (1766–1839) was “one of the first outstanding figures of the American stage” according to the Oxford Companion to the Theatre; sent to London to study painting with Benjamin West, he found the lure of the theatre more compelling and eventually became a playwright, manager of New York’s Park Theatre, and vice president of the National Academy of Design. Here reverting to his first “life,” he provides interesting biographical accounts, full of anecdotes and personal observations, of numerous prominent American artists and their works. Vol. I features a facsimile of an autograph bill of sale, for portraits, by John Singleton Copley.

•  On Dunlap, see: Oxford Companion to the Theatre, 211. American Imprints 24237; BAL 5026; Howes D571; Sabin 21303.   Publisher's quarter green diced cloth and tan paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped title; edges and extremities rubbed, corners bumped, spines sunned, sides with spots of staining and discoloration. Front hinges (inside) tender. Ex–social club library: spines with paper shelving labels, front pastedowns with 19th-century bookplates and inked shelving numbers, title-pages and one other in each volume rubber-stamped, no other markings. Some outer corners of vol. II lightly waterstained; a very few instances of small spots of staining.  (27558)

“A Sudden &Unheralded REVELATION”

•  Catalogue of an important exhibition and sale of German art at the very beginnings of systematic American collecting of art. Includes reprints of notices from the press and full details of the items exhibited.

There were at least four editions of this title: one of only 16 pp., one of 45 pp., one of 47 pp., and a fourth with 91 pp. All were printed in New York in 1850 or 1851 with varying printers' and publishers' names.

Very scarce.

•  Very good condition. Sewn, original printed wrappers; pencilled filing marks. Minor creasing and dog-earing, a few age spots, light dust-soiling.

Author's Copy!

•  Softbound exhibition catalogue, on good paper. Worn but intact.

With theVery Striking Folding Plate

•  First printed work to give instructions on producing mezzotints, and a most curious account of the development of "sculpture." Evelyn (1620–1706), whose occupation the Dictionary of National Biography cites simply as "virtuoso," published popular works on gardening, politics, and education. His roughly chronological history of illustrative arts, divided primarily by significant figures, is sprinkled with a number of languages (Greek, Hebrew, and German all in their respective typefaces, along with Latin in italics), and also contains a detail from the first mezzotint print ever created, here reproduced as an oversized (and dramatic) folding plate. A "Life" of Evelyn is also supplied.

The work first appeared in 1662, with a second edition published in 1755; the present copy is a reissue of the 1755 with a cancel title-page. A handsome engraved portrait, in which Mr. Evelyn is wearing a most dashing cape, opens the volume.

•  Wing E3513 (first ed.) On Evelyn, see: Dictionary of National Biography, XVIII, 79–83. Contemporary speckled sheep with red gilt-stamped morocco spine label; some little chipping to edges, with joints and spine lightly abraded and cracking (not disastrously). Early inscription reads "Evelyns Sculptura compiled originally the elder Faithorne." Pages unspotted for the most part, and plates in good condition save for slight offsetting to frontispiece. A pleasing book!

Do It Yourself! — PAINT a Farm Wagon or a Drawing Room

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•  First edition. The front cover proclaims “Every Man His Own Painter,” and Gardner obliges with Victorian-era how-tos (some illustrated) for “satisfactory results in plain and fancy painting of every description, including gilding, bronzing, staining, graining, marbling, varnishing, polishing, kalsomining, paper-hanging, striping, lettering, copying, and ornamenting.” The volume closes with a series of advertisements for contemporary crazes including decalcomanie goods, phrenological books and journals, and hydropathic cookbooks.

Provenance:  Pencilled ownership inscriptions of W. G. Benton.

Rare in the first edition, with only one copy located via OCLC and none added by NUC Pre-1956.

•  Publisher's brown pebbled cloth, front cover and spine with gilt-stamped title; rubbed overall, edges darkened, spine extremities chipped. Front hinge (inside) cracked; front pastedown and free endpaper with pencilled ownership inscriptions; front fly-leaf partially excised. Light foxing variably throughout.  (24377)

Frescoes for Westminster Palace

•  Prince Albert headed this committee set up by the Queen to decorate the new Houses of Parliament: The report examines the feasibility of ordering murals in fresco compatible with the architecture and style of the building. This is the first of at least five such reports issued between 1842 and 1846.

Rare: We trace no U.S. copies of this work via NUC Pre-1956, OCLC, or RLIN, nor is it in NSTC

•  Removed from a nonce volume. Lightly age-toned with a little light staining.

How Much Were theTownley Marbles Worth?

•  Government document 172, “Ordered to be printed 19th June 1805.” This scarce discussion of the British Museum’s proposed acquisition of a significant collection of classical sculpture includes several contemporary assessments of the value of Townley’s marbles — which did indeed go to the museum later in the year of this item’s publication. John Flaxman was one of those expressing an opinion of the trove; he says that he has “paid a great deal of attention to it as a Sculptor” and believes it to be “richly worth” the sum of £20,000. Click the image for an enlargement.

RLIN and OCLC report only one holding of this item in the U.S.

•  Not in NSTC. Removed from a nonce volume, now in a Mylar folder; title-page and final blank lightly dust-soiled. Sewing mostly gone. Title-page with short tear from inner margin, not touching text; some leaves with small edge chips.

Catalogue Biography & Bibliography

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•  Only edition of this companion text to a collection of 40 hand-printed India proofs (not present), with a catalogue of those prints and biographical notes on the engravers followed bythe first bibliography of American wood-engraving, by James B. Carrington.

No. 64 of 100 copies.

Provenance:  Bookplate of Henry William Poor, the American banker and book collector (1844–1915) whose family business preceded Standard & Poor's.

•  Half maroon morocco over red cloth boards, gilt title to spine, top edge gilt; red and blue marbled endpapers in a French swirl pattern (joints rubbed and cloth darkened). Bound tight; bookplate as above to pastedown. Light thumb-soiling and one small stain in outer margin of last two leaves.  (30073)

First in a Grolier Club Series: Important American Printers

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•  Attractive edition of this exercise in romantic, art-historical fiction, the text opening with an initial, calligraphic, decorative capital printed in red and sporting a long “tail.” John Henry Nash of San Francisco printed 300 copies of this, on Van Gelder paper, as his contribution to “a series of six books done by eminent American printers at the invitation of the Grolier Club,” according to a preliminary notice.

•  Publisher's quarter tan cloth and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with printed paper label; spine and board edges darkened, edges and extremities rubbed, cloth at spine head chipped above page-level. Additional spine label affixed to back pastedown; rough-cut pages a bit cockled at edges as can rsult with that treatment; clean.  (28236)

A QUITELuxurious & Useful Production

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•  Canvassing ancient Egypt to the Italian Renaissance and modern times, this monograph on ceramic art distinguishes classes and styles of pottery, is illustrated with200 wood-engraved figures by Hercule Catenacci and Jules Jacquemart, bears12 full-page engraved plates by the latter, and tells how to identify many works' makers, cataloguing1,000 marks and monograms. Each full-page plate is protected by a guard sheet with a brief letterpress description.

Jules Jacquemart (1837–80) was but in his mid-twenties when he began drawing from the renowned art collection of his father, Albert, an art historian. The Jacquemarts' first book on the subject was the Histoire de la porcelaine, followed shortly by this, its companion, in 1873, when Jules was “at work again on his own best work of etching.” He also made the etchings for Techener's Histoire de la bibliophilie (1860–64) and, in 1864, received an important commission from the French crown for Gemmes et joyaux de la couronne (1865).

The monograph's originalcolor-painted beaux-arts wrappers are bound in at the front and back here, including the spine in front (rubbed and faded, hinting at original splendor). The title-page is printed in red and black. An extensive index appears at the end.

Binding: Three-quarter evergreen morocco bordered with gilt fillets over bubble gum and mint marbled paper boards; spine with raised bands, gilt-framed compartments containing author, title, date, and appropriate devices in gilt; endpapers matching marbled boards and top edge gilt.

•  For J. Jacquemart, see: The Nineteenth Century, Vol. IX, pp. 681–90.   Leather lightly scuffed at extremities and sunned to a woody green on spine and upper front cover; offsetting from turn-ins onto endpapers. Mild to (occasionally) moderate foxing throughout and old water damage on a few leaves only.  (30132)

A Woman Collector's BLOCKBUSTER Collection

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•  The first successful and major sale of art in the “post-Depression” era. Sale occurred December 4–5 and comprised 112 lots, bringing $463,520.00. Were the buyers still optimistic two days later when the news started to come in from Pearl Harbor?

Heavily illustrated; hammer prices pencilled in.

•  Original printed boards, scuffed and stained yet volume sound and pleasant enough with interior clean. As noted, most hammer prices pencilled in.  (26156)

One Year's Worth ofWell-Spent Half Hours

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•  First edition: Engaging periodical compilation of poetry, history, Christian meditations, natural history, art and literary criticism, biography, and fiction, set forth in 52 weekly issues meant to be consumed in half-hour portions, with each weekly number containing seven half-hours. (Indices and quarterly title-pages are bound in here.)

Knight, who was devoted to books and to literature from the time he was a small child, was a much-admired printer and publisher, as well as an author, reformer, and would-be educator: Many of his publishing endeavors were aimed at improving and enlightening the working class.

•  NSTC 2K7731. On Knight, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online. On binding cloth, see: Krupp, Bookcloth, style Wav3.   Publisher's textured brown cloth, covers blind-stamped with muse motif and title, spines with gilt-stamped title and blind-stamped decorations; lightly worn overall with some fading, vol. II spine head with traces of a strip of cloth tape. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. Paper slightly embrittled (more so in second volume), with a few short edge tears. Externally ordinary; internally worthwhile.  (26860)

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Kraus, H.P., bookseller, New York. Arts: Art, Architecture, Archaeology, Festivities, Music, Drama, Film. New York: H.P. Kraus, (19--). 4to.
$7.50

•  Catalogue 166.

•  Original wrappers.

•  Special Bulletin 10.

•  Stapled in original wrappers.

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Ancient Dress.  51 Copper-Engraved Plates.

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•  First edition: Treatise on ancient dress among the Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Jews, and Romans, among other peoples. The author, a Flemish artist also known as Andries Cornelis Lens, came to the study of antiquarian clothing by way of his classically inspired focus in painting. Illustrated with 51 copper-engraved plates done by Pitre Martenasie, this is an “Ouvrage estimé” according to Brunet (who seemingly mistakenly cites 57 engravings as opposed to the 51 given by von Lipperheide, described in institutional holdings, and present here).

•  Brunet, III, 980; Von Lipperheide, Katalog der Freiherrlich von Lipperheide’schen Kostumbibliothek, 105. Contemporary calf, rebacked in complementary style, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; original leather acid-pitted and cracked over edges and extremities. Front pastedown with small bookseller’s ticket from Albany, NY; free endpapers with a few stray pencilled notations. Dedication page with institutional rubber-stamp in lower margin.

Lindsay, Jack. Turner: The man and his art. London, Toronto, Sydney, New York: Granada Publishing Limited, 1985. 8vo. 179 pp.; illus.
$30.00

•  First edition. With 12 color and 13 black and white illustrations.

•  Paperback. On both covers is a detail of the painting A First Rate Taking in Stores.

CERAMICS

•  Sixth edition. Illustrated with color & black-and-white photos and drawings.

•  Publisher's cloth. Very good condition, no dust jacket.

Kay's Improved & Enlarged Edition of
theUniversal Receipt Book
  [A Best-Selling How-To Guide]

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•  Early U.S. edition: All-encompassing compendium of 19th-century practical knowledge — anything you can't do using instructions from this manual, you probably shouldn't be trying in the first place, though one assumes that in many cases there are more effective modern means now established! The work starts out with metallurgy (including everything you need to know in order to assay the value of silver, cast bronze finely, or color steel blue), proceeds to art (make your own crayons, or paint a miniature on ivory), and ranges to subjects such as farriery, tanning, horticulture, and husbandry, before closing with an assortment of miscellanea not covered by any previous header. Culinary topics include brewing, wine-making, preserving, and confectionary, as well as good basic recipes for such classics as potted beef, quince pudding, mock turtle soup, and “tomata catsup”; the carving appendix is illustrated with in-text wood engravings. The medicine section is quite lengthy, and covers ailments both mild and severe.

Five Thousand Receipts was first printed in America in 1826, and enjoyed as enthusiastic a reception in the United States as it previously had in England. This is the fourth American edition, here in the Kay variant giving “122 Chestnut Street – near 4th” as the publisher's address.

Provenance: Francis Kelsey, New York City.

•  Bitting 299; Lowenstein 122; Shoemaker 39366.   Contemporary sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped decorations; worn and abraded, joints open and fragile, front cover darkened, leather lost at spine extremities. Front free endpaper with early inked ownership inscription; front fly-leaf with small hole and pencilled annotations. Pages with varying degrees of age-toning and spotting, several signatures deeply browned. Some corners dog-eared. One leaf with upper outer corner torn away, with loss of a few words; one leaf with tear from lower margin extending into text without loss; one leaf with internal closed tear, without loss. Used, as this usually was!  (27405)

Marilyn Monroe'sLAST Posed Photo Session

•  The 1964 issue of this popular annual includes an essay by Margaret Bourke-White, in addition to the 12-page portfolio showcasing Bert Stern's photographs of Marilyn Monroe (and much more).

•  Publisher's red cloth in dust wrapper, jacket not price-clipped; dust jacket rubbed and chipped at extremities and along upper back edge, light dustsoiling to portion of back cover.  (24682)

Villa Benedetta in Words — A Copy of a RARITY for a Reader

•  First of three editions of Mayer’s architectural description of the Villa Benedetta in Rome. The format suggests that the volume was written for the tourist travelling “to see the sights.” Click the images for enlargements.

WorldCat locates only two copies of this edition.

•  Recent marbled paper-covered boards with leather spine label. Without the plates; light age-toning.  (26145)

MODERN LIBRARY“LEONARDO”

•  Fiction.

•  Publisher's limp boards, stamped in gilt. Spine a little sunned. Last few pages unopened. Near fine copy.

Michener onJapanese Woodblocks

•  First edition of this “tour of three centuries of art,” conducted by famed novelist Michener. 257 illustrations decorate the substantial volume, including 55 in full color; many are full-page, others in-text or several to a page.

•  Publisher's textured taupe silk binding, front cover with patterned coral silk insert; spine with gilt-stamped title. Dust wrapper and original slipcase present, lower back corner of jacket slightly crumpled; otherwise a gorgeous, clean copy in an undamaged slipcase.  (24683)

(Millais, John Everett).  Lutyens, Mary. Millais and the Ruskins. New York: Vanguard Press, 1967.
$17.50

Sixty Full-Page Full-Color Illustrations

•  Lengthy introduction followed by descriptions of 60 manuscripts, each description with a full-page, full-color illustration. Work ends with a bibliography.

•  Publisher's tan cloth, corners bumped, in handsome illustrated dust-jacket, a bit sunned. A very nice book!  (22344)

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      on JEWISH HISTORY & CULTURE, 
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Venetian History — Unique Medieval Revival Binding

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•  First published in 1887, this evocative study of medieval and Renaissance Venetian history comes from a Scottish-born novelist and historical writer who also published similarly titled works on Florence, Rome, and Jerusalem. Here it appears in a remarkable hand-painted, medieval-inspired binding with raised and gilt details.

Binding:  Striking medieval-style vellum, front cover with inset chromolithographic illustration in jewel tones in raised, stamped and gilt frame; hand-painted foliate decorations in pink, green, blue, and yellow with stamped and gilt “studs” laid on, artfully scattered. Calligraphic title incorporating onlaid raised decorative capitals; spine with painted foliate decoration; back cover with fully-filling reverse-painted griffin in blue-green and gilt. Studs and other raised elements appear to be clay or ceramic; upper edges gilt and gauffered.

•  Binding as above, moderately dust-soiled and darkened, ties now lacking; gilt elements, front cover inset, and some paint a bit rubbed, with a few studs chipped and three absent — none of this much diminishing the effect. Frontispiece recto with early inked gift inscription. Pages age-toned with a very few light smudges; almost, entirely clean. A pretty and remarkable binding, very appropriate for this romantic history.  (30306)

Pro Helvetia Foundation. Swiss drawings: Masterpieces of five centuries. Organized by the Pro Helvetia Foundation. Introduction and notes by Walter Hugelshofer. Circulated by the Smithsonian Institution. 1967–1968. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1967. 8vo. 176 pp.; illus.
$22.00

•  An exhibition catalogue of Swiss draftsmanship from the 16th to the 20th century, from Holbein to Giacometti. With 126 illustrations.

•  Paperback. Gift inscription on front endpaper. Fine.

On Paintings in Rome & Italian Painters — CORRECTED

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•  Uncommon second, corrected edition of a work originally printed in 1786, here in an uncut copy in the original wrappers. Prunetti, the author of several works on painting and art, offers his thoughts on the great paintings of Rome, the artistic techniques used in their creation, and how to judge them, along with brief lives of the most prominent Italian painters.

•  Original paper wrappers, spine with hand-lettered paper label. Early inked owner’s inscription on front free endpaper; one early inked shouldernote. Some pages with faint hint of foxing, most clean. A very good copy.

Robb, David M., & J.J. Garrison. Art in the Western world. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1953. 8vo. Frontis., 1050 pp.; illus.
$22.50

•  Third edition. Architecture, sculpture, painting, and the minor arts from prehistoric times to modern. With 648 black and white illustrations, 4 color plates, and illustrated endpapers.

•  Publisher's cloth. Very good, with only a few dog ears. No dust jacket.

French Translation of the NT withExegesis of Text
 & of PICTURES

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•  Sole edition. A study of the iconography of Jesus in Late Roman and Medieval art, from the 3rd to the 12th century. Each chapter (165 in all) covers a particular scene in the life of Jesus, and the text begins with a Catholic translation in French of the relevant passages from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The text is accompanied by illustrations, copious interpretive notes of the iconography and critical commentary, both exegetical and archaeological. Officially endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church, the preliminary leaves including an “approbation” by the Archbishop of Tours and a letter from the Archbishop of Paris.

The book is illustrated with 100 engraved plates and numerous in-text engravings, as well as a frontispiece map of the Holy Land in each volume. The plates are mostly figural illustrations taken from paintings in catacombs and on sarcophagi, illuminated manuscripts, mosaics, ivory figurines, murals, etc. The title-pages are printed in black and red ink, and decorated with an engraved vignette.

•  Publisher's red cloth, stamped in gilt on the spines and front covers. Spines sunned and front cover of vol. II slightly sunned along fore-edge also; cloth of spines frayed at extremities and chipped in other places. Hinges (inside) of vol. I a little weak, stitching exposed; corners bumped with cloth damage; pages very shallowly bumped. Ex-library, with shelf labels on spines, institutional bookplates on front pastedowns, pressure-stamp to title-pages and one other page in each volume. Paper very good; pages clean and bright.  (24688)

For more SETS,  click here.

Boom-Time Art Auction — Some Prices/Purchasers NOTED

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•  Partially priced and sometimes with name of purchaser. Sale occurred March 28–29 and contained 77 lots, all photographically illustrated.

Provenance of all items given.

•  Original green fabrikoid, spine and front cover title rubbed/faded, front joint cracking.  (26157)

Senff, Charles H. ...Important paintings by old & modern masters collected by the late...[of] New York City and Syosset, Long Island.... New York: The Anderson Galleries, 1928. Folio. 87 ff.
$115.00

•  Partially priced and sometimes with name of purchaser. Sale occurred March 28–29 and contained 77 lots, all illustrated. Provenance of all items given.

•  Original green fabrikoid, front joint cracking.

TWO Important Works ofLocal History

The Editor’s OWN Copies

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•  In 1680, in Mexico City, the Mexican polymath Sigüenza y Góngora (1645–1700) published the first edition of this highly important work of art history. Recounting the great celebrations surrounding the dedication of the “temple of Our Lady of Guadalupe” in Querétaro that the priest Juan Caballero y Ocio had built and donated, it not only describes the festivities in detail (“Frailes, monjas, gigantes, tarascas, cofradías, mulatos, indios, todos en la celebración’), but is profuse and precise in telling of the nature and minutia of the art within the temple.

Extraordinarily difficult to find today, that 1680 work was already rare and hard to obtain by the beginning of the 19th century — so José María Zelaa e Hidalgo decided, in the first years of the century before last, to bring out a new edition with some editorial revision and additions. This he accomplished in 1803. Zelaa was a zealous historian of his home town of Querétaro, and the combination of his scholarship with Sigüenza's earlier scholarship made this second edition of the latter’s work a true advance. Then, in 1810, Zelaa brought out a volume entirely made up of his own reportings, and that volume is here bound with his 1803 edition of Sigüenza.

The pairing of Zelaa’s two efforts in one volume is both uncommon and intellectually reinforcing. But here, it is more than that: It is a personal memento of a life’s work as well, forthis copy bears the bookplate of the editor himself.

Provenance:  Bookplate of José María Zelaa é Hidalgo. 20th-century rubber-stamp with initials only of a private Mexican collector.

•  Sigüenza: Medina, Mexico, 9637; Palau 312964. Zelaa: Medina, Mexico, 10540; Garritz 940; not in Palau. Publisher's sheep, gilt spine; small amount of leather missing from base of spine. Collector’s stamp partly offset to title-page; otherwise, the occasional stray stain only. “Association copies” don’t get much more “associated” than this.

Baroque & Rococco Minor Arts

•  First edition. Illustrated exhibition catalogue auf Deutsche.

•  Publisher's illustrated boards. Good-plus condition.

An Art Collector's Estate

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•  Suárez de Toledo seems to have been a serious collector of oil portraits — including one of Hernando Cortés and one of the Queen of France — as well as of religious art, silver, and other “objets d'art.” The several inventories present in this cahier document his passion, with the other documents further telling the story of the complicated settlement of the estate by the heirs.

•  Written by several notaries so hands are varied. Stitching starting to loosen. A very few leaves with small loss of text to a hungry rodent.  (27598)

[Sweetser, Moses F.].  Dürer. Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co., 1880. 12mo. Frontis., 158 p., 2 pl. [also bound in, his] Rembrant. Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co., 1880. 12mo. 162 p., 5 pl. [also bound in, his] Van Dyck. Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co., 1880. 12mo. 157 p., 4 pl.
$25.00

•  In Sweetser's series, Artist-biographies. The biographies were issued separately in 15 volumes, then gathered in 5 volumes with three biographies per volume. This is vol. 4 in the gathered series. It must be noted that none of the volumes in the either series indicates it is part of a "set." That is, each volume truly is (and looks like) a stand-alone.

•  Publisher's deep blue cloth stamped in black and gold. Slight fraying to top and bottom of spine. A very good copy.

Liberal Arts Summarized forFrench Students

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•  Third, corrected and enlarged edition, following the first of 1799: Elementary overviews of mathematics, geography, music, painting,  French history, chemistry, rhetoric, and an array of other topics.

The oversized, folding maps of France and the world featurehand-colored provincial and continental borders; two additional oversized, steel-engraved plates depict the gods atop Mt. Olympus and the seven wonders of the world.

Early editions of this work are uncommon.

•  Quérard, La France littéraire, 341.   Contemporary marbled paper–covered boards, spines with gilt-stamped leather title-labels; bindings faded and with some soiling/rubbing (most notably to spines). rubbed. Half-title of vol. I, pp. vii/viii of preface, and printed volume labels all bound in at back of vol. II; some signatures of vol. I unopened. Title-pages with traces of mostly effaced inscriptions; first and last few leaves of both volumes very lightly waterstained. One plate with two short tears from lower edge, not touching image. Solid and interesting.  (27048)

•  Printed sage green wrappers.

First Edition, Inscribed bythe Author

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•  First edition of this “manual for manufacturers, art dealers, artists and collectors,” written by a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and past president of the Chemists' Club. The volume is illustrated with eight plates, including microscopic close-ups of paint samples and reproductions of paintings displaying aging issues.

Provenance: Presentation copy signed by the author: “To Mr. Breiser[?] with the regards of Maximilian Toch,” dated [19]17.

•  Publisher's olive cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title in decorative lettering embellished with an artist's palette, spine with decorative gilt-stamped title; cloth showing minor wrinkling and light discoloration over back cover and part of spine, corners and spine extremities slightly rubbed. Front free endpaper with inscription as above. Pages faintly age-toned, else clean.  (24491)

A Big Book Documenting a Big Era

•  “Three themes dominate the period covered by this book . . . the consolidation of the new nation-states . . . religious persecution and the wars between Catholic and Protestant . . . the expansion of Europe over the whole world” (from the dust-jacket). The volume is extensively illustrated in color and black-and-white; this is a work of art reference as well as historical reference.

•  Publisher's terra-cotta cloth, front cover and spine with gilt-stamped title, corners bumped yet cloth pristine, in dust-jacket; wrapper with wear at corners and spine extremities, one short edge tear to upper front edge. Pages age-toned; clean and unmarked.  (26183)

Art/Architecture — Folio Extra — Imposing!

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mouse-over, for an enlargement.

•  Italian-language work on the art and architecture of the Liberiana basilica in Rome, illustrated with more than 100 impressive full-page engravings (as well as one oversized, folding engraving) of the church’s art and sculpture, along with its architectural detail, plans, and design. Detailed explanations of the plates, which were engraved by Domenico Feltrini, are provided.

This handsomely printed and produced volume forms the second part of the author's “Quattro principali basiliche di Roma,” which also includes works (not present here) on the Vaticana and Lataranense.

•  Publisher's half vellum with marbled paper–covered sides, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather labels; boards a little abraded and showing wear. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate; front fly-leaf with bookseller’s pressure-stamp in upper corner. Occasional light foxing. A handsomely produced, still very impressive volume.

For more ARCHITECTURE,  click here.

Van Gogh in His Own Words

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•  First U.S. edition, printed in the same year as the London first: Translated from the Dutch by Rela van Messel and introduced by Walter Pach. These letters are full of character and passion, with Van Gogh speaking at length about his artistic principles.

The volume was printed by the Haddon Craftsmen and the aquatone illustrations by Edward Stern & Company; there are 20 mounted photographic facsimiles of Van Gogh letters, sketches, and lithographs.

This is numbered copy 383 of 650 printed.

•  Publisher's red cloth, covers and spine with veneers of wood-grain paper, in original slipcase; spine and slipcase sunned. Internally crisp and clean.  (30128)

A Fundamental WorkHandsomely Printed

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•  The distinguished historian and bibliographer Don Guillermo Tovar de Teresa writes extensively of this work, but here we will quote only a small portion of what he says. “El Teatro Americano es una obra fundamental para todos aquellos estudiosos interesados en formarse una idea de la poblaciones de la Nueva España: su ubicación geográfica — longitud y latitud — con la descripción de los lugares circunvencinos; clima, aguas,y vegetacion; gobierno eclesiástico y civil, familias de indios, españoles y castas, templos y, sobre todo actividades económicas: comercio, ganadería, obrajes, minería, etc.”

Don Guillermo wrote that in his bibliography of works illuminating colonial Mexican art — and these two large volumes also have much to say, not noted above, about architecture, arts, sculpture, etc.!

The volumes are from the famous press of the widow of José Bernardo de Hogal, the Baskerville of Mexico, and they retain all of the fine characteristics that are associated with the Hogal name, including handsome black and red title-pages, great typography (here in double-column format), and use of good quality paper.

The author was general accountant of the Treasury's office of mercury accounting (the element was important in silver refining) and one of the most illustrious Cosmographers of New Spain. He wrote this treatise at the insistence of the viceroy, who was greatly pleased by it.

•  Sabin 99686; Medina, Mexico, 3802; Tovar de Teresa, Bibliografía novohispana de arte, II, 86/87.   Recent full dark brown calf, round spines, raised bands accented with gilt rules; green and red leather spine labels; gilt center devices. Covers with elaborate gilt roll at edges, concentric center compartments and gilt corner devices. Lacking the engraved title, only. Present are intermittent touches of limited worming and, in vol. II, the occasional old stain to a top margin's edge. This is a clean and indeedBEAUTIFUL SET.  (26378)

Da Vinci on theScience of Painting

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•  First French edition of the great Trattato della Pittura, published in the same year as Langlois's first Italian edition and very possibly having preceded that edition. The work was translated by Roland Fréart, sieur de Chambray, and is here illustrated withan added engraved title-page, a title-page vignette, two head-pieces, and 56 in-text copper engravings drawn by Charles Errard after Nicolas Poussin and engraved by René Lochon. Compiled from da Vinci's manuscripts after his death by his pupil Francesco Melzi, this text served as Renaissance-era Europe's primary introduction to da Vinci's theories and principles.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of the Stanley family: eagle and child with the motto “Sans changer” (probably belonging to Edward George Geoffrey Smith Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby).

•  Brunet, V, 1258; Graesse, VI, 327.   Contemporary mottled calf, covers framed and panelled in double gilt fillets with gilt-stamped corner fleurons; rebacked some time ago with sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. Original leather with expectable acid-pitting, extremities rubbed, spine moderately rubbed. Mild age-toning and light to moderate soiling/staining at page edges, in the wide margins variously, and sometimes in portions of text; several neat repairs of old-fashioned sort to page edges or corners, with one later one. Engravings crisp and delightful.  (27296)

(Walker, John). Walker, John. Self-portrait with donors: Confessions of an art collector. Boston: Little, Brown, 1974.
$12.50

For other BIOGRAPHIES (not all of art-world figures) —
click here.

Warner, Langdon. The enduring art of Japan. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1952. 8vo. 178 pp.; illus.
$35.00

•  First edition. The history of Japanese art and architecture. With 92 illustrations.

•  Publisher's quarter black cloth, over green cloth sides. No dust jacket. Fine.

Art & Antiques

•  Highly illustrated auction catalogue of a notable private collection of art, silver, antiques, sculpture, etc.

•  Blue paper over light boards, paper slightly torn.

“They're th' Stylishest Relations We Got”

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•  Faux old-time country family photo album of “albumen prints,” drawn and captioned by caricaturist Frank Wing (1873–1956), later one of Charles M. Schulz's art teachers. The work was quite popular at the time of its printing: H.L. Mencken called it “one of the gayest and gaudiest and withal one of the keenest and most penetrating pieces of humor that the presses of America have disgorged.” This is the fourth printing, published in the same year as the first.

•  Publisher's brown paper–covered boards, front cover with title and author's signature stamped in black, and with affixed printed paper illustration; without dust-jacket, paper mottled, edges and extremities rubbed, front cover with two small scrapes. A few faint smudges to some pages, otherwise clean.  (29138)

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